Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Researchers recently found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis who took 1,000 mg curcumin per day had a 83.2% decrease in a measure of inflammation in swollen joints, compared to a 68.9% drop in patients who took an anti-inflammatory drug.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term illness characterized by inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues. There still is no known cause but it is classified as an autoimmune disease in that the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. RA can occur at any age, but is more common in middle age, with women more susceptible than men (1).
More than 1.5 million US adults suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, being 139% more common in women (9.8 per 1,000 women) than men (4.1 per 1,000 men) (2). Rheumatoid arthritis is highly disabling, with 80% of rheumatoid patients becoming disabled after 20 years, bringing with it a reduction in life expectancy by an average of 3–18 years. If left untreated, 20–30% of rheumatoid patients may become permanently work-disabled within 2–3 years of diagnosis (3, 4).
Because 30% of rheumatoid arthritis patients are unresponsive to any classic treatment intervention, alternative treatments are very much needed. Now a new study (5) suggests curcumin may be of benefit to rheumatoid patients.
In the study, 38 rheumatoid arthritis patients (33 women, 5 men) with an average age of 48 were given either 1,000 mg curcumin in two 500-mg capsules (14 patients), 1,000 mg curcumin with 50 mg of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug called diclofenac sodium (12 patients), or 50 mg diclofenac sodium (12 patients) per day for 8 weeks. Before and after the study, researchers obtained blood samples to measure for inflammatory proteins while also performing a 28-joint assessment (called the DAS28) for tender and swollen joints.
By the end of the 8 weeks, those in the curcumin-only group saw a 11.2% drop in a measure of inflammation called the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (28 to 24.86 millimeters/hour) compared to a 13.3% drop in the curcumin-diclofenac group (28.75 to 24.92 mm/hr) and an 8.6% drop in the diclofenac-only group (27.08 to 24.75 mm/hr) (p < 0.05). For total number of painful joints, those in the curcumin-only group saw a 83.2% decline (18.64 to 3.14 swollen joints) compared to a 83.5% drop in the curcumin-diclofenac group (16.67 to 2.75) and a 68.9% drop in the diclofenac-only group (18.2 to 5.67) (p < 0.05).
Finally, the curcumin-only group saw a 97.1% decline in the total number of swollen joints (12.15 to 0.36) compared to a 96.4% drop in the curcumin-diclofenac group (11.5 to 0.42) and a 89% drop in the diclofenac-only group (16.6 to 1.83) (p < 0.05).
For the researchers, “Our observations that curcumin alone was able to alleviate symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in this study are quite encouraging, and these results provide an ideal springboard for investigating the potential of curcumin in other chronic diseases [due to] chronic inflammation.”
Source: Chandran, Binu, and Ajay Goel. “A randomized, pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of curcumin in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis.” Phytotherapy research 26.11 (2012): 1719-1725.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Posted January 7, 2013.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com
References:
- “Rheumatoid Arthritis” posted on the U.S. National Library of Medicine website.
- “Rheumatoid Arthritis” posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
- Rindfleisch JA, Muller D. 2005. Diagnosis and management of rheumatoid arthritis. Am Fam Physician 72: 1037–1047.
- Schmajuk G, Trivedi AN, Solomon DH, et al. 2011. Receipt of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs among patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Medicare managed care plans. J Am Med Assoc 305: 480–486.
- Chandran B A randomized, pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of curcumin in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Phytother Res 2012 Nov;26(11):1719-25. doi: 10.1002/ptr.4639. Epub 2012 Mar 9.
